[COMMENT: The emerging Christianity is largely a search for the life which
has been evacuated out of most of contemporary Christianity -- the loss of both
intellectual credibility and any sense (as suggested below) of curiosity about
life. Christians of the last several centuries failed to appreciate either
science or nature, both gifts from God, and we are paying a terrible price in
our credibility.

Some of that is changing because some (mostly the young adults) are waking up to
the tragedy which my generation has passed on to them. Deo gratia!
E. Fox]

By Berit Kjos

April 8, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

A flood of mystical
temptations are sweeping through churches and culture. They beckon us "let go"
of the old inflexible Word and explore the new ways of the world and spirit.
Naturally, a growing consensus of "open-minded" seekers claim that God's truth
is "too divisive" to fit their new vision of global unity or experiential
spirituality.

“It used to be that
Christian institutions and systems of dogma sustained the spiritual life of
Christians. Increasingly, spirituality itself is what sustains everything
else," wrote Pastor Brian D. McLaren, a "key
figure" in the Emerging Church and author of "A New Kind of Christian."
"Alan Jones is a pioneer in reimagining a Christian faith that emerges from
authentic spirituality. His work stimulates and encourages me deeply.”[1]

Do you wonder what
McLaren means by "authentic spirituality?" Or by "reimagining a Christian
faith?"

I did. So I read "Reimagining
Christianity." In it, Alan Jones, the Episcopal Dean (priest) of San
Francisco's gothic
Grace Cathedral, offers some provocative clues:

"I am no longer
interested, in the first instance, in what a person believes. Most of the time
it’s so much clutter in the brain.... I wouldn't trust an inch many people who
profess a belief’ in God. Others who do not or who doubt have won my trust. I
want to know if joy, curiosity struggle, and compassion bubble up in a
person’s life. I’m interested in being fully alive. There is no objective
authority...."[2]

[COMMENT: This is a reflection on the apathy and inertness of most Christians
-- who have no sense of Biblical worldview or how to make their Gospel
meaningful to the culture. So we spend most of our efforts
futilely copying the culture rather than presenting an authentic Christianity.
As the people to whom Berit Kjos is referring. We Christians have mostly
ourselves to thank for the failure of the Gospel message in the West.
We lack honest faith, which might be described as the courage to risk the
unknown based on what we do know. E. Fox]

Wrong! There is an
objective authority:
our Sovereign
God, Creator of the universe! But, as in Old Testament days, today's
masses "love evil more than good!" (Psalm 52:3) Their earthly destiny is
summarized in 2 Timothy 3:7: "...always learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth."

In "Reimagining
Christianity," Jones explains that "Any journey toward belief must begin with
the task recognized by mystics throughout history. They realized that merely
knowing about things wasn't enough. In fact, it was a distraction."[3]
Then he points to a major goal of mystical knowledge (gnosis):

"They realized that
there was a deeper and potentially frightening task of self-knowledge.
Knowledge of God and knowledge of self were sides of the same coin..... Those
on a spiritual path share this vision of the universal and unending character
of our Journey to and in God. The principle is that all things are lights
guiding our way—even a stone or a piece of wood.... What stops our drive for
facts from going haywire? The discovery of a higher form of knowing."[3]

Let's summarize his
main points, then compare them with some occult systems formerly hidden in
secret societies:

1. Biblical
beliefs are out. They are irrelevant -- to be discarded as mere "clutter in
the brain."

2. Being "fully
alive" is in -- no matter what spirit or religion inspires the obligatory
passion.

3. There is no
objective reality or absolute truth.

4. A "higher
form of knowing" would be based on mystical experience, intuition and
self-knowledge. The latter supposedly leads to union with a universal god.

This worldview lies at
the heart of Western occultism! Alan Jones' quest for a "higher form of
knowing" is simply a new version of ancient Gnosticism and the mystical
"Jewish" Kabbalah.
Starting in the first century, the two occult threads intermingled and formed
new pathways to secret gnosis. Those mystical paths hid for centuries
underground.

During the 20th
century, this hidden "knowledge" began to spread into mainstream culture and
churches through revered poets and authors such as
William Blake,
George McDonald,
Tolkien and Lewis' "closest" friend,
Charles Williams. The hidden mysteries of occult masters were laid bare to
a thrill-seeking world hungry for a "fresh" and exciting spirituality. But
even before these dark secrets were exposed,
Georg
Hegel, who was deeply involved in the several branches of Western
occultism, provided educators and globalist visionaries with the
dialectic process
needed to transform both church and world.[5]

Not only did these
enticing mysteries affect beliefs and worldviews, they helped change
the way
we think and communicate. Even people who still treasure God's Word are
learning to approach information in radically new ways. Nothing seems absolute
anymore!

Francis Schaeffer,
founder of L'Abri, saw the beginning of change back in the sixties. Ponder
this warning from his 1968 book, "The God Who Is There:"

"The present chasm
between the generations has been brought about almost entirely by a change in
the concept of truth.... On every side you can feel the stranglehold of this
new methodology—and by ‘methodology’ we mean the way we approach truth and
knowing.... And just as fog cannot be kept out by walls or doors, so this
consensus comes in around us... and yet we hardly realize what has
happened....

"Young people from
Christian homes are brought up in the old framework of truth. Then they are
subjected to the modern framework. In time they become confused because they
do not understand the alternatives with which they are being presented....
This is unhappily true not only of young people, but of many pastors,
Christian educators, evangelists and missionaries as well."[6]

"All the great
religious traditions are in upheaval, and the divisions are within rather than
between or among them. I have more in common with my friend Stephen, the rabbi
at a large synagogue in San Francisco, than I do with many fellow Christians.
I don’t mean that we simply find each other congenial. I mean that I am more
ideologically compatible with Stephen than with, say, any Christian
fundamentalist....

"Although there are
some Christians who are unafraid of other spiritual paths... battle lines are
being drawn between 'orthodox' and 'progressives.'... There’s a celebrated
couplet by the poet
William Blake that sums up for me much that is disturbing about
exclusionary versions of Christianity:

"That vision of Christ,
which thou dost see Is my vision's greatest enemy."[7]

In light of this
spiritual melting pot, it's not surprising that Rick Warren has announced that
fundamentalism, of all varieties, will be "one of the big enemies of the 21st
century."[8]

Jesus told His
disciples that His way would be narrow and difficult. "There are few who find
it," he said. But "wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and there are many who go in by it." [Matthew 7:13-14]